Keystone pipeline meets the Occupy movement

Yesterday
I wrote about the speakers who addressed the Keystone protesters at the White
House. Today I’d like to talk about the protesters
– specifically, the young people and the growing “Occupy Wall Street” movement.

By
my rough estimate, at least half of the protesters at Sunday’s Keystone XL
pipeline demo were young people. They
came from many parts of the country, but they were united by a new youth culture
unfamiliar to those who are not following the Occupy Wall Street protests across
the nation.

The
Occupiers have embraced a broad agenda: opposition to corporate greed, starting with Wall Street and the banks
and going from there; concern for the needs of ordinary people; a call to a
more meaningful democracy.

It’s
easy to see why tar sands fits under that broad umbrella. The TransCanada Corporation shrugs off the
devastation of Canadian forests caused by tar sands extraction. They disregard the homes, lands, livelihoods and
health of the people in the path of the proposed pipeline. They seem unconcerned about the people who live
in the “Cancer Alleys” spawned by petrochemical processing. And they stand, like the rest of the oil
industry, to make a fortune at the expense of our health.

So
it’s no surprise that the Occupiers are part of the tar sands protest against
the Keystone XL pipeline. They made
themselves seen and heard in a few of their trademark ways:

Mic check. In the absence of microphones, the Occupiers
apply human voice power to broadcast their message to a crowd. The speaker speaks a few words; those within
earshot repeat the words in unison. The
speaker continues with another phrase or two; these are also repeated
aloud. The swelling sound carries to the
crowd, electricity-free. We saw actor
Mike Ruffalo apply mic check in his talk on Sunday. National Wildlife Federation president Larry
Schweiger used it too, briefly, when someone stepped on an electrical cord and
the microphone temporarily went dead.
It’s a clever application of power to the people, and with no greenhouse
gas emissions.

Hand
signals. The Occupiers
have developed their own hand signals that they use at their events. If they like what they hear, if they want to
signal support or agreement, they hold their hands over their heads and wiggle
their fingers. We saw a lot of twinkling
fingers during the Keystone rallies. Beware,
though: If they don’t agree with you, if
they think you’re wrong, they hold their hands in front of them, fingers facing
down, and wiggle them. Well, it’s a lot
more polite than another disapproving finger gesture we have seen.

Message. Every movement has its slogans,and there were plenty of new ones at
the Keystone rally. Most of course had
to do with oil and climate change. But
what grabbed my attention was a call-and-response that signaled a much broader
set of concerns. One person would cry
out, rhythmically: “Tell me what
democracy looks like.” And the crowd
would roar back, “This is what
democracy looks like.”

It
is here, where a concrete issue like tar sands intersects with a deep concern for
democracy, that I see the potential for really building a movement. The call for meaningful democracy – for a
political system that allows ordinary people, the un-rich, the 99 percent, to
rally opinion, persuade others, and change
reality – is what really gives me hope.

On this PSR webinar, Jonathan Levy, ScD, of Boston University School of Public Health, shared details of the study he recently coauthored that quantifies the significant health impacts that will accrue from implementing the EPA's Clean Power Plan and projects these benefits by state. Read more »